To think clearly, turn off the tube: Your television is not your friend

I get varying reactions when I tell people that I quit watching television 15 years ago. Some people look at me as though I’m a alien from Mars. Many, though, nod knowingly and say, “Oh, I don’t watch the stupid shows. I just watch it for news.”

What those people don’t understand is that they’re watching the most dangerous thing on television. If you want to watch so-called “reality” TV or low-brow humor, I might laugh at you, but you aren’t under the impression that you’re educating yourself. You know exactly what you’re getting.

The people who watch the TV news channels, however, are under the mistaken impression that they’re being educated about the issues. They don’t seem to realize that what they’re getting is entertainment in a news format. They don’t understand that “television news” is the ultimate oxymoron.

This is counter-intuitive for most people, who assume they’re doing a good thing when they avoid the “stupid shows” and they instead watch news and similar programming to “educate themselves about the issues.” So why do I claim they’re mistaken?

“Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely without protest or even much popular notice. The result is that we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death.”

Think about it. In what Postman calls the “typographic age,” public discourse was about ideas, because written material is suited to explaining complex things and making nuanced arguments. Since we’ve gotten into the broadcast age (especially since television came to dominate), it’s exactly the opposite. Most people get most of their information from a medium which is not suited to explaining complex ideas. It’s suited to showing simple things and simple representations of ideas. There was a day when books and newspapers offered explanations of the various competing ideas. Now we live in a day when television simply narrows the choices down to “red vs. blue.”

As a result of our society’s love of television, the areas of life Postman mentioned in his quote have been changed. We’ve become a nation of dumbed-down spectators who expect to be entertained. Politics is all about entertaining voters and being likable. Most modern churches have fallen victim to the belief that what we once called a “worship service” is now about entertaining churchgoers — who won’t come back if they’re not sufficiently entertained by the “show.” News is clearly about being sensational and grabbing attention in an entertaining way. Kids in school — including in college — believe they’re supposed to be entertained by their classroom experiences. As a result, we’re doing more poorly in all of these areas. We’re thinking less. We’re turning off our brains. The vast bulk of the population has slowly become passive and irrational, because those people are accustomed to being entertained and having their emotions pandered to.

The world is in serious trouble right now, and most people seem quite content to amuse themselves to death. If you’re content to go down with the masses — who are going to be caught unprepared when things collapse — go right ahead and keep pretending that you’re getting what you need from television news. Even if you see yourself as a serious and informed person, the cable TV news shows are simply entertaining you and keeping you full of hate and anger for whoever “the other side” is for you. What you’re watching on television isn’t preparing you to think deeply about philosophy or history or ethics or theology or any of the other things that matter to the decisions you make. It’s merely entertaining you and giving you a false sense that you’re informed. Just because you have selective facts recited to you doesn’t mean that you’re learning the context with which to properly evaluate those facts. To quote Postman again:

“[M]ost of our daily news is inert, consisting of information that gives us something to talk about but cannot lead to any meaningful action.”

Most of what you get from television news is geared toward keeping you coming back. People who suddenly understand the truth and know what to do about it don’t have a need to keep turning on the show of their choice to be angered again. Once you understand the reality around you, you don’t need Bill O’Reilly or Rachel Maddow or whoever you prefer for your point of view. You’re more interested in understanding (and doing something about it) rather than finding new reasons to be angry.

Turn off your television. Start reading again. (I can say “again” because those who’ve never read much probably couldn’t bother reading this far.) Read ideas. Read history. Read philosophy. Read psychology and sociology. Read theology. Read things you’re sure you disagree with. Think about why people have believed the things they’ve believed. Television will not help you to understand these things. Books will, as can some magazines, some podcasts and some websites. But books are the most important resources you will have. Trust me on this.

How did we get into this shape? I turn again to Postman for an explanation. In the foreword to “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” Postman talks about two different views of the future that came from two well-known books from the mid-20th century — and about their competing views of what a chilling future might look like:

“We were keeping our eye on ‘1984.’ When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.

“But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another — slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World.’ Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny ‘failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.’ In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

“This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.”

I believe Huxley was right, and I believe we’ve achieved much of his “Brave New World” already. If you want to opt out of that world, the first step out is to turn off the tube. Become a rational, thinking human being, maybe for the first time in your life.

Honestly, to make the leap from being a passive consumer of entertainment to being an active thinker and proactive doer is a difficult thing. It’s hard work. Most people run away from it. If you want to have the same fate that awaits those passive people, it’s your choice. But if you want to really live life and become a free person, you have to think for yourself.

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What if your daughter were about to start kindergarten and you went to the affluent school where she was about to go and discovered that the school was teaching nonsense? That’s exactly what happened to an education consultant in Colorado who recently visited his daughter’s new school. Everybody was nice, but when the kindergarten teacher talked about their methods of teaching reading, he cringed. She was using “progressive” methods that were debunked decades ago. He’s learning that most schools use similar techniques that don’t work, simply because schools of education are committed to ideas and techniques based on ideology instead of cognitive science. So why do so many people entrust their children’s future to these well-meaning but incompetent people? It’s one of the most underreported scandals of modern learning. Read his summary of what he’s found here and then check out the radio documentary to which he refers where you can find out more.

I really enjoy political satire. You might remember that my first short film was political satire. But there’s a trend in political satire today which I find disturbing — and this graphic is a great example. This fake promotional ad for Fox News was placed on New York City subways recently. When I found it on social media, people who lean to the political left were smirking and enjoying this attack on their “stupid” opponents. But this isn’t satire. It’s just a mean-spirited attempt to say, “Those who agree with me are smarter than you idiots who watch Fox News.” It’s a smirking, nasty attack which makes no point other than to claim superiority over people for the sin of disagreeing. I absolutely loathe Fox News, but I also loathe CNN and MSNBC and all the other media outfits who pander to partisans and intentionally try to divide people. If you want to show that you’re a small-minded bigot who doesn’t understand his opponents, just pretend your enemies are all stupid and evil. They’re not. The truth is a lot more complicated. Ideas are ripe for satire, but that involves creative thinking, not just nasty personal attacks.

When I have a bad day, my first reaction is to want to turn to someone I love. But my next instinct is a paradox. If I can’t call someone and I can’t touch someone and I can’t be with someone who loves me, I have an overwhelming desire to be alone. Tuesday was an unpleasant day. I had to argue with my bank about something. (I won, but still.) Something happened at work that made me want to walk out and never return, although I understand that nobody else involved would understand. Tonight, someone on Facebook who I barely knew reacted badly to something I said — for reasons I’m completely baffled about — and called me a “jackass” and unfriended me. I’d like to talk with someone I love. I’d like to spend time with a loved one and feel safe and understood. But since I can’t do that, I crave the opposite. I want to find a cabin somewhere and disappear for a month. We humans are social creatures. We need each other. But there are days when others cause enough hurt that a few weeks of silence would be a relief. This has been one of those days.

Democracy is going to die — and it’s all because the human brain prefers easy answers to complex problems. You and I were born during the golden age of democracy. It was a period during which it was assumed that democracy was the natural evolution of civic governance. But Dr. Shawn W. Rosenberg is challenging that idea. He’s a leader in the study of political psychology and he says research convinces him that the human brain isn’t wired for self-rule and that democracy is heading toward collapse. In a paper presented this year to the International Society of Political Psychologists, Rosenberg argues that the human brain naturally favors simple answers to complex problems, which tends to favor the rise of authoritarian strongmen who offer confident and simplistic solutions. Anyone who’s paying attention sees this happening around the world already. Donald Trump isn’t the cause of the problem, but he is an early example of this outcome in action. All authoritarian rulers come to power offering simplistic solutions — just as Adolph Hitler did in Germany and Benito Mussolini did in Italy. I’ve argued for 20 years that this country is heading toward social and economic collapse and I’ve made the case that things are going to get ugly when that happens, at least for those who are not prepared. Many people will ignore this evidence, of course, because they have too much emotionally invested in the idea that democracy will prevail — but that is just another example of clinging to a simple answer to a very complex problem. Don’t be surprised when things get ugly.

Political candidates are liars. They can’t help it, because lying to voters is the only thing that gets them elected. They have to promise things which are not possible. I used to write political promises for my clients, so I know this very well. None of my successful clients ever did anything which I promised for them. Every day lately, I see new promises from presidential candidates. I know they’re lying about what they will do if elected — and I assume they know they’re lying, too. When a society changes, the change starts from culture — and that starts with the values which individuals hold. I hate many things about this society. I want a lot of changes. When I was young, I believed the way to change those things was by becoming a political leader. I know better today. We live like hamsters on a wheel or rats in a maze. Government can’t change that. Only we can make those changes for ourselves. The next time you hear a politician promising to change your life — your work life or your home life or your children’s future — remember that the person is lying. Don’t wait for politicians. Take the initiative and change your own life. Nobody else can do it for you.

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